Thankyou to all my wonderful reviewers! You are the reason that this chapter came so quickly. That, and that I'm stuck at my Grandparent's with a laptop with no internet and nothing else to do!
In this chapter, everything that's going wrong gets worse. How? Well, you'll have to read and find out! And those of you who wanted Hermione's reaction… well, there are a lot of reactions; I don't know which one she likes better.
Enjoy it everyone!
Disclaimer: I do not own any Harry Potter related characters. Alessia, Jayson and Erika are mine!
Siren's Song
Chapter 5
"Have any of you guys seen Draco?" Blaise asked at lunch, as he wandered over to the Gryffindor table in search of his friend, assuming that he'd be with Harry.
Harry looked down at his plate guiltily as Hermione answered him. "No, I haven't seen him all day."
Blaise bit his lip worriedly. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen him since this morning; we left the Common Room together to go to breakfast. He hasn't been in any of his classes today."
"Maybe he's sick." Ginny suggested. "Come on Ron; let's go check the Hospital Wing." Ron nodded and followed his sister out of the Great Hall.
"Why don't we go and check the Common Room and his room too, just in case." Alessia suggested. She had seen the guilty look on Harry's face, and didn't like where this was going.
"Hermione, why don't you come too, all the other Slytherins are over at the table." She suggested.
"All right, but can I borrow the cloak, just in case?" she directed the last part at Harry, who nodded absently and handed the shrunken cloak over to his friend.
"Thanks." She said, looking at him curiously, pocketing the cloak and following her friend in the direction of the dungeons.
Blaise made to follow them, but his sister waved him down. "Stay and eat Blaise, you've done enough."
Blaise sat down between Neville and Seamus and reached over to grab some of the food on the table. He looked at Harry out of the corner of his eye, and thought it strange that he hadn't leapt up and gone running to find Draco. He also noticed that he kept stealing looks over at the Teacher's table. Blaise followed Harry's gaze to Professor Killian and felt the same sinking feeling that his sister had experienced.
From the Staff table, Erika was watching her brother's friends as the hurried away in search of him. Being well attuned to her brother, she knew that when they found him, he'd be a broken mess. And she was pretty sure she knew what over too. She could see the heated looks that passed between Jayson and Harry when they thought no one was looking their way. She knew that Harry had probably broken up with Draco.
The question was, why? She didn't think that Harry was capable of being so cruel to anyone, especially someone he loved as much as she was certain he loved Draco. She was sure the fault wasn't with Harry, but with Jayson. What had the man said or done that had convinced Harry to be with him instead of Draco? She remembered the brief air displacement she had sensed within the Classroom two days before. Could that have been the problem? Had Killian done something?
She leant across to Severus and whispered in his ear. "I don't like the look of this." She nodded in the direction of the Gryffindor table where Draco's friends where frantically trying to work out where he could be.
"We will have to watch over them, that's all we can do for now." Severus murmured back, and Erika nodded grimly, her heart going out to her little brother as she felt the pain he was going through.
Siren siblings could always sense each other's extreme emotions, and it worried her that Draco was in so much emotional pain.
She eyed the midnight haired Jayson distastefully. She didn't particularly enjoy working with him. There was something about him that made her skin crawl; maybe it was the fact that he seemed to have half the student body drooling over him. She wasn't sure what it was, but she knew that she had better keep a close eye on him… and Harry too, just in case something went seriously wrong…
Alessia and Hermione made their way to the Slytherin Common Room and Alessia let them in. "Draco?" Hermione called worriedly. When there was no answer, Alessia led the way to Draco's room.
"Draco?" Alessia knocked on the door softly. When there was no answer Lessa tried the handle. Upon discovering that it was, inevitably, locked, Hermione pulled out her wand and unlocked it quietly.
Both girls were horrified to find Draco lying face down on his bed, crying into his pillow. He didn't acknowledge them as they stood in the doorway, not knowing what to do.
Hermione was having horrible flashbacks of what had happened during the Holidays… she couldn't risk Draco doing that to himself again.
'Draco? What happened?" she asked softly, not making any movement from the doorway.
"Is it Harry? What did he do?" Alessia asked, her voice as quiet as Hermione's. Hermione looked at the younger girl, startled. Surely Harry hadn't… but it would explain why Harry hadn't gone to find Draco himself. She just hoped the boy hadn't done something completely stupid that couldn't be fixed.
"H-h-he broke up with me!" Draco sobbed brokenly.
"What? Why?" Hermione demanded, her eyes wide. That she hadn't been expecting. What did Harry think he was playing at?
"He said that he didn't love me like he thought he did and… and…" he broke off, heart wrenching sobs choking his words.
"What happened Draco?" Alessia asked kindly, tears threatening to spill from her own eyes as she watched her best friend cry.
"He left with Professor Killian!" Draco wept. "I saw them kiss before I ran away."
Both girls were shocked to the core. Harry had left Draco; sweet, caring, beautiful Draco for someone like Killian.
Hermione's eyes flashed furiously. She was going to string Harry up by his ankles over the lake and hope the Giant Squid would eat him for hurting the blonde.
But her eyes quickly softened when Draco curled up in a ball and cried softly into the pillow again.
Both Hermione and Alessia moved at the same time. They climbed up onto the bed with him and wrapped their arms around him, letting him cry himself out. They whispered to him in soft voices and told him that everything would be fine.
They lay like that for some time, until he stopped crying. Hermione sat up and said. "You should go down and eat something." She told him gently.
"I can't face the Great Hall! I can't!" Draco protested.
"I'll go down to the kitchens with you." Alessia replied, understanding that he wasn't ready to face Harry yet.
"Good idea, but I'm going back to the Great Hall." Hermione said, her eyes hardening until they looked like steel.
"Oh Mia! Please don't make a fuss!" Draco pleaded with her.
She sighed. "I won't make a fuss Dray, I promise." She answered him softly.
"Okay…" Draco said, unconvinced. He got up and went to the bathroom to make himself presentable.
When he was gone, Alessia looked at Hermione, concern mirrored on her pretty face. "What do you plan to do?" she asked worriedly.
"Tell Harry exactly what I think of him." Hermione said, anger rippling through her voice.
Draco chose that moment to come out of the bathroom; they left the Slytherin Common Room together, going their separate ways when they reached the Entrance hall.
Hermione stormed angrily into the Great Hall. She vaguely heard Ron mutter to Ginny. "I think they found him, she doesn't look too happy about something."
"Hermione? Are you all right?" Harry asked her carefully.
She stood opposite him, leaning on the table with one hand, the other resting on her hip.
"You!" she hissed. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't feed you to the Giant Squid, you… you foolish idiot of a boy!"
"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed, horrified.
"Shut up Ron!" she snapped. "Just wait 'til you hear what the git's done!"
"Hermione I –" Harry tried to cut her off.
"Or better yet," Hermione added, not to be outdone. "Why don't you tell them Harry. Why don't you tell them the reason we found Draco in his room crying his eyes out!"
"What have you done Harry?" Blaise demanded.
Harry had the decency to look ashamed. "I broke it off with Draco." He muttered.
"You WHAT!" Ron, Seamus, Dean, Neville and Ginny all yelled at once, Hermione and Blaise merely stood there stone faced.
"What on Earth were you thinking?" Ginny screeched, drawing a few looks their way.
"Shhhh!" Harry berated her heatedly. He sighed quietly. "I didn't want to hurt him. But I can't lead him on either. I don't love him… I thought I did, but I guess I was wrong."
"Harry," Ginny said seriously. "What you have with Draco isn't just some fling… you do love him, I know you do."
Harry said nothing; he still didn't really know what to think. He knew Ginny was right, but at the same time, when he was with Jayson… well, he didn't quite no what to make of his relationship with the older man.
Hermione interrupted his thoughts by saying. "But that's not all is it Harry? Why don't you tell them who you left him for?"
Harry blushed, but remained silent, unsure of how to break the news.
Hermione leaned a little further in, "He's now dating Professor Killian!" she declared, her voice only loud enough for the present company to hear.
There was a stunned silence. No one could believe that Harry would rather date Killian that Draco.
Ron was the first to open his mouth. "Harry…" he began. But trailed off at the look Harry gave him.
Harry left the table and made his way to Herbology early, not wanting to hang around to hear what they had to say. He felt guilty about what he did to Draco, but it was his choice to be with Jayson, and he was standing by his choice.
Back in the Great Hall, as Harry disappeared out the door, the others stared at each other, at a loss at what to do.
"This looks bad." Ron said finally.
"No shit Sherlock." Seamus said sarcastically. He was thinking about the conversation he'd had with Harry the night he'd had that nightmare. It had seemed to the Irish boy then, that Harry had really, truly loved Draco. Just what exactly had gone wrong?
"Is Draco all right?" Neville asked.
"Lessa and I found him in his room crying. She went to the kitchens with him because he didn't feel up to facing every one." Hermione answered. "I guess you could say he's as well as to be expected."
"In other words, he's a complete wreck." Blaise finished, and Hermione merely nodded sadly, her anger having faded as quickly as it appeared and leaving her weak in the knees. She slowly sank into the chair beside Blaise.
"I'm worried that Draco might try to hurt himself again." She told him quietly. "Like he did in the holidays. "
Ginny, who was sitting on Hermione's other side, shuddered at the memory of Draco's blood soaked body lying on the tiled floor of the bathroom. The others who had been present at 12 Grimmauld Place at the time went quiet. And those who hadn't bit their lips worriedly at the thought of Draco trying to kill himself.
They sat in silence until lunch finished, and made their way to their respective classes, the Gryffindors to Herbology, and the Slytherin boy was going to head to the kitchens to get Draco and make sure he went to Charms.
Erika grabbed Hermione and Blaise as they followed the others out of the Hall. She pulled them back and waited for the other students to leave before saying quietly. "Please don't be too hard on Harry; it's not his fault really."
Hermione and Blaise looked at her incredulously. "But he…" Hermione began, but Erika cut her off before she could get the words out.
"I don't think that this is so much Harry's fault as Killian's." Erika explained quietly. "I don't know what it is, but something doesn't feel right…" she trailed off, lost in thought.
When she began to speak again, it was about Draco. "Make sure he keeps singing. If he stops singing…" she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, she didn't want to think about it.
"That shouldn't be a problem, he never stops singing." Blaise said.
Then they remembered how heartbroken Draco was.
When they looked into her eyes they were ocean blue, and they reflected immense sadness in their depths. Erika knew that her little brother was hurting.
"Please, just look after him for me okay." Erika murmured. The two nodded and she smiled thankfully at them. "Thanks. You'd better get to your classes or you'll be late."
The two dashed out of the room to get to their classes on time.
Hermione stopped suddenly, and Blaise cannoned into her back. He blushed. "Sorry." He muttered.
Hermione blushed faintly too. "S'okay." She replied with a smile.
"What's up?" he asked her curiously.
"I wonder what will happen if Draco stops singing?" she asked.
"No clue."
"Do you want to come to the library with me later to see what we can find out?" she asked him.
Blaise smiled at her, and she flushed. "Sure, I'd love too." He replied.
They parted ways when they realized they were going to be late.
When Blaise arrived at the kitchen he was shocked at how pale and wan Draco looked. He looked at his sister, and her expression told him that he actually looked good compared to what he had looked like when she found him.
"Come on mate, we've got Charms." He said, more cheerful than he felt.
"I really don't feel like going." Draco whispered.
"It'll help take your mind off it all." Blaise told him encouragingly.
"I take it Mia told you what happened then." Draco replied miserably.
"Yeah, she wasn't happy either. She stood over Harry until he told us what he did to you."
Draco managed a tiny smile as he pictured Hermione standing over Harry, a furious look on her face.
"You should go Drake, I've got to go to Potions." Alessia said, getting to her feet. "And Blaise is right, it will keep your mind off it."
"And we're gonna be late if you don't hurry up!" Blaise told him, pulling his blonde friend to his feet and dragging him to Charms.
LATER...
"What do we have next?" Draco asked. He felt a little better for going to his Charms class.
Blaise winced, and Draco knew the answer immediately. "Defence Against the Dark Arts." He whispered, any visage of good humour he may have acquired during Charms disappearing instantly.
Blaise nodded, and slung an arm around Draco's shoulders for moral support.
Draco leant into him slightly, thankful for his best friend's presence.
They were greeted by Ron, Hermione and the others, minus Harry. Hermione hugged him tightly, and Seamus patted him on the back sympathetically.
They were quiet for a moment, and Draco slowly wrapped his arms around Hermione to return her hug.
"Where's Potter?" Blaise asked, voicing Draco's own unasked question.
Hermione made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat. "In the classroom with his tongue down Killian's throat".
She saw the horrified look on Draco's face and put her hands over her mouth guiltily. "Sorry Draco, I…"
Draco laughed despite himself, at the expression on her face. "It's all right Mia, tact isn't what's needed here. If you sugar coat it, it'll only make it worse."
Hermione smiled and led him into the classroom.
They were the first ones there, and they were just in time to see Harry and Jayson involved in a heated, passionate kiss. Ron hissed angrily in the back of his throat.
Harry tore himself away guiltily, realising his friends were in the room when he heard Draco whimper.
They were saved when the other Slytherins and Gryffindors began to file into the room, Harry gave Jayson a dazzling smile and went to his desk. Hermione sat beside him.
He looked at her sideways. "I'm surprised you don't hate me." He commented.
She sighed. "We don't hate you Harry, we think you've made a poor decision, and you've hurt Draco beyond belief. But you're still our friend, and it was your choice to make. We don't have to approve of everything you do, Harry; you're still our friend."
She looked to the others for support, and they nodded, albeit a little stiffly. Harry smiled slightly. "Thanks guys." He said, relieved.
Harry found it hard to concentrate during DADA lessons. He constantly found himself staring at Jayson; either studying his face or checking out his ass as he paced around the classroom.
When wasn't looking at Jayson, he was watching Draco. To Harry, the blonde Slytherin was still gorgeous, and the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He didn't know what it was he had felt for the blonde that had disappeared, but it somehow, unexplainably so, felt like it was still there inside him, suppressed and waiting to erupt again.
Out the corner of her eye, Erika watched her brother. But to be perfectly honest, she was more interested in Harry's actions at the present moment. The boy seemed unusually confused; his gaze shifting between Killian and Draco uncertainly, as if he wasn't sure what was happening.
She frowned to herself, not sure what to make of his strange behaviour. Clearly he was still unclear as to what he should do.
She stopped next to Pavarti Patil to snap her back to the task at hand (casting the Patronus) and to get her to concentrate properly, and then looked back over at her brother and his friends.
She was surprised to see that Harry was having trouble casting his Patronus, and she stopped at Draco's elbow to watch.
"Concentrate Harry." Jayson told him amiably, as if there was nothing between them outside the classroom.
"But I am concentrating sir." He protested, focusing on the task with all his might.
Still nothing happened.
"Hmmm…" Erika murmured.
Draco looked up at his sister curiously. "What is it? What do you know?" he demanded, seeing the look on her face.
"Hmmm? Oh, it's probably nothing." She replied airily.
Jayson, as he was roaming around the class, could feel the eldest Malfoy daughter's eyes boring into the back of his head. He shifted uncomfortably and turned to face her.
There she stood, by her brother's desk, staring at him with a calm, even gaze, a single eyebrow raised as she studied him. Her brow furrowed as a thought came to her, and he wondered briefly how much she knew.
He put it out of his mind as he heard her say to Draco. "Oh, it's probably nothing."
That was too close a call; he'd have to be careful.
Harry and Ron were used to Hermione eating at breakneck speed to get to the library, but had never seen Blaise in such a hurry. The two wolfed their food down in record time and dashed away, sparing a smile for Draco as they left.
"What do you suppose they're on to?" Ron wondered.
"Merlin knows mate!" Harry replied with a wry grin. "Hermione's got something up her sleeve I guess."
Hermione and Blaise however, knew exactly what they were looking for. They looked up every book in the library that mentioned Siren's in an attempt to find out what happened if they stopped singing, and they found nothing.
"This is useless!" Hermione wailed, dropping her head on to the pages of a giant volume. "We've looked e
verywhere, and there's nothing in here that doesn't tell us anything we don't already know!"Blaise put his hand on the small of her back, soothing her. "Don't worry about it. We'll just have to make Draco sing because Erika said we had to. It doesn't really matter why."
"I suppose so." Hermione answered gloomily, disappointed.
They made their way back to the Great Hall in companionable silence, and were glad to see that Draco was still present at the Gryffindor table with their friends, and not running away to hide.
It seemed the others had finished eating as they sat back down where they had been earlier, but they noticed that both Harry and Draco were unusually quiet. Hermione took the opportunity to ask Draco to sing.
"No thanks Mia, I really don't feel up to it." He said quietly.
No amount of cajoling could convince him to sing. His adamant refusal surprised them all; singing was Draco's life, it was all he did. It didn't matter whether he was happy or sad; he always managed to get a tune out for every occasion. He'd told them that singing always made him feel better. But now, he refused to give voice to a single note. It both worried and concerned them all… especially Hermione and Blaise; who were ever conscious of Erika's warning.
Every day for a week they attempted to get him to sing something… anything. It didn't really matter what so long as he sang something. Neither Blaise nor Hermione had any luck. He either ignored them, or simply bluntly refused to open his mouth.
Draco seemed to shrink into himself. Alessia could see his already pale skin getting paler by the day…it looked ashen, as if he was critically ill.
He was also getting thinner, which was not something he needed to do. He looked so frail and sick that his friends were beginning to become concerned.
"Draco, are you all right?" Alessia asked him.
"Yeah, you look awful." Neville added.
"Really? I feel fine." Draco answered, surprised.
Ginny put a hand to his forehead. "Well, he hasn't got a fever or anything." She said.
While everyone ate, Draco merely pushed his food around his plate, something he'd been doing a lot lately.
"Eat something mate." Ron told him, his brow creased slightly out of worry. It wasn't like Draco to be off his food.
"I'm not really all that hungry." Draco replied softly.
"Right! I've had this. I'm taking you to Madam Pomfrey, just in case." Blaise declared, getting out of his seat and dragging the protesting blonde in his wake. "This has gone on for far too long."
Harry had watched the entire exchange in silence, worried about Draco sure, but too busy checking Jayson out from the corner of his eye to be paying too much attention.
Blaise and Draco returned just as Transfiguration started. "Well? What did she say?" Ginny demanded.
"She said he's been working himself to hard, and needs to take it easy for a while." Blaise said, a little disgruntled and still not satisfied.
Luckily, the day passed without further incident. Luna drifted over at lunch to tell Draco how awful he looked, but other than that, nothing remotely unusual happened.
"Draco, sing for us?" Hermione begged him. "We miss your voice."
Draco sighed. "Sorry Mia, I just don't feel like it."
Any appetite he had left disappeared, so he pushed his chair back and left the Great Hall.
Draco let his feet carry him outside, and he wished for a moment that he had his cloak with him; it was getting chillier by the day as winter approached.
He sat under tree by the lake and wrapped his arms around his knees. He thought about those blissful few weeks he had managed to spend with Harry before it had all come crashing down around him. Gods, it hurt so much, he just wanted things to back to being the way they were… he wanted Harry back!
Tears spilled down his cheeks for the first time since Hermione and Alessia had found him in his room, the first day. He'd been strong ever since then, never shed a single tear, as he'd been taught to do. But he didn't want to be strong anymore; he didn't want to be strong anymore! Was it so wrong that, for once in his life, he just wanted to be happy?
Was being happy such a big stretch for someone like him? A Malfoy? Voldemort's whore? What had he done to deserve such miserable existence? He didn't know.
Draco buried his head in his hands and wept. He just wanted it to end.
The following morning, Blaise and Alessia both came racing into the Great Hall to find the others, their eyes wide and terrified.
"Have any of you seen Draco?" Blaise demanded.
"No, why?" Harry answered.
"He didn't come back to the Common Room last night!" Alessia said, biting her lip to keep tears of worry spilling from her eyes. Ron stood up and put an arm around her shoulders, somewhat awkwardly.
"What?" Harry said, concerned.
"His bed's not slept in and he wasn't in the Common Room this morning. Everyone was asleep and no one heard him come back." Blaise replied.
"Shit!" Seamus swore, getting to his feet, Dean and Neville right behind him, "Have you searched the castle?"
Blaise shook his head. "Not yet."
"That'll take all morning!" Dean groaned.
"Not necessarily." Hermione said, sounding calmer than she felt. "Harry…Harry!" she yelled in his ear, pulling his gaze back to her as it drifted to the staff table.
"What is it Hermione?" Harry asked, irritated.
"The Map genius, use the map to find Draco!" she hissed angrily.
"Oh, here… you do it; I've got to go." He said, throwing the dirty looking parchment at her before getting up and leaving, Jayson following not a minute later.
"I swear… if he doesn't get over himself I will cut his genitalia off with a rusty sword!" Hermione snarled, furious with her friend. The boys present all winced and took a step away from her.
She turned her attention to the map. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." She muttered, tapping her wand against it.
Those who didn't know about the map gasped and stared at it, seriously impressed. Before they had the chance to comment, Hermione had found Draco and wiped it again. "He's by the lake." She told them. "Oh, I hope he hasn't been there all night!"
The whole group (Minus Harry of course) ran down to the lake, and to the location the map had told them, Hermione in the lead.
She stopped dead. "Oh no!" she whispered, her hands flying to her mouth in horror.
Blaise pushed past her and ran to Draco's side.
He was there for a moment, silent and apprehensive. "He hasn't done anything, he's still breathing." They all breathed a sigh of relief.
Hermione's heart stopped when Blaise when completely white. Alessia flew to her brother's side and knelt beside Draco. Her expression soon matched the one her brother wore.
She stood. "We have to get him to Madame Pomfrey now!" she told them, her face pale but set.
"Why? What's the matter?" Ron asked.
Blaise stood too, cradling Draco in his arms. "He won't wake up." He whispered. "I can't get him to wake up!"
Hermione went pale, and Ginny took off at a run. "I'll go get Rika!" she called.
Madame Pomfrey tucked the unconscious Draco into a bed. "He didn't catch a serious chill, even though he was out all night. He should've woken already, I don't understand it." She murmured.
Draco's friends stood around the bed, all of them ashen faced and worried. Draco looked even more pallid than he had the previous day.
"He won't wake." A voice said from the doorway.
They turned and saw Erika and Ginny, both as pale as the others were.
"Draco is a Siren in love. When a Siren's heart is broken, there's a great possibility that they could end up like this." She sighed. "If they stop singing, they stop being able to communicate their feelings effectively enough, because they have this irrational thought that it's not enough... that they're not good enough."
"What are you saying?" Alessia asked. "I don't understand.
Erika took a deep breath. "Draco's not unconscious, he's in a coma."
There were horrified gasps all around.
"He won't wake unless his love is requited…" Erika said, her voice breaking slightly. "This could kill him."
All the girls burst into tears. Seamus leant against Dean for support, and the black boy wrapped his arms around him for comfort.
Hermione's hand found Blaise's, and he squeezed it tightly. She brushed her tears away and said clearly. "We have to tell Harry."
There we go! Chapter five within a week! Not a bad effort if I do say so myself. Hopefully I'll get another chapter in next week, but then it could be a while because school starts after that. Sadly, I'm doing year 12 this year and my mother had pretty much read me the riot act. "No TV, no Anime, no time for reading, you won't be writing stories this year!" humph, that's what she thinks… I'll find time everyone, I promise! But it might take some time!
So did everyone like chapter five? Things keep getting worse don't they? It's okay, this chapter is the halfway point, give it til chapter seven and hopefully things will go okay from there, unless I do something stupid like I did last time I wrote a story and make the whole thing a rather depressing affair until the very end! Anyway, I'm rambling, so please Read and Review, I'm hoping to get to a hundred soon!
